Storm

A big rain storm went through my area yesterday, flooding the street in front of my house, downing trees everywhere, and knocking out electricity in lots of places. I'm one of the fortunate ones that did not lose electricity.



I had to go out this morning for a fast errand and as I drove down a street in my neighborhood, I noticed cables going across the street in quite a few places. At first I thought they must be for a survey counting cars, or maybe even to check the car speeds. But then I noticed that these cables went all the way from one doorway to the doorway across the street. It finally dawned on me that one side of the street had electricity and the other side did not. The cables were from one neighbor to another, sharing electricity undoubtedly to run sump pumps or to keep refrigerators going. "Love thy neighbor........" took on a whole new look for me today.

Office clean-up

The other day I spent the entire day cleaning up my office - organizing, re-arranging and purging. Now everything has a place and everything is in it's place. Is it perfect? Oh my, NO. The most glaring imperfection cannot be seen from the doorway, but when you sit in the chair and look to your right, there on the floor are all the wires and cables. What a mishmash! Attached to my computer are speakers, a keyboard, a mouse, a USB hub, a label maker, a docking station for my camera, a docking station for my PDA, a laser printer, and a color printer/fax/copier. Then there are the Cable cables - from the cable box to the computer, from the cable box to the cable connection and from the cable box to the surge protector outlet.

Do you think I will live long enough to see a completely wireless system???????

Gifts

Right before I retired, my friend Brenda gave me this Vera Bradley lunch bag. Little did she know that I would use this lunch bag all the time even though I eat lunch at home every day. The bag is perfect to carry in the car to keep my Diet Coke cold. Even on the hottest days, I put my pop between the ice packs in the bag and it stays deliciously cold in spite of the fact that the car is an oven. It is so nice to go shopping, return to the car, quickly turn on the A/C, and reach for my perfectly chilled can of DC.

Thanks again, Brenda!

Sizzling Hot Summer Days

It is a hot humid day. The air is still, without a hint of a breeze. It is the kind of weather that drains my energy, smothers my joy, and can very easily get me depressed. Maybe depressed is too strong of a word. Perhaps a better word would be "blue", or as my Mom used to call it, "down in the dumps."

Instead of wallowing in my mood, I decided to find a few things in my house that reminded me of happy times.

This watercolor painting is made by my brother (now deceased) Ralph - or as he always signed his paintings, Ralf. I love this picture and the feel of Spring it invokes. It hangs at the end of my hallway where I see it all the time. I'm so thankful that I have this picture and I'm more thankful for all the happy memories of my brother. Thinking about times we spent together always cheers me up.




The Iowa piggybank is a souvenir from a boat ride on the Mississippi that I took quite a while back with my sister, brother-in-law, and his mother. It was a delightful trip and my memory of that day is of fresh air, sunshine, cool water breezes, laughter, good food, and a completely relaxing time. Now wait a minute......did I get it on the boat ride? Or did I get this little piggybank on the trip my sister and I made to Garner Iowa to visit the quilt shop, Country Threads? Well, no matter, both trips were great and left me with wonderful memories.

Remembering good times and finding things for which to be thankful always helps to lift my spirits.

Today's Gratitude List -
1. Air-conditioning!!!!!!
2. Good memories
3. Plenty of things to do and books to read

Oh Happy Day

This picture was taken in February 2002. It was a Happy Day for me. I had two huge poorly maintained evergreen trees in the front yard of the house I had purchased the previous year. It was one of the only things I did not like about the house. Those trees were close to the front window, blocked light and prevented grass from growing. My realtor had told me that it would cost about $2,000.00 to have the trees removed. I saved that amount but had not made the calls to get estimates.

Enter my cousin. She came for a visit In February 2002. I was still working at the time - as an accountant for a CPA firm and it was Tax Season. My cousin came to give me a break at home by preparing my meals and running errands for me. I asked her if she would mind making calls to get estimates on removing those ugly trees.

That day I got a frantic call from my cousin telling me that a tree removal company was in the neighborhood and would remove the trees for $400.00. WHAT? $400.00????? Well, it seems that they had no more jobs to fill their day and if they could let the trees fall on the neighbors yard, it would be an easy job. "Do they have insurance?" I asked.

Everything worked out. The trees (two big ones and one small scrawny one) were removed and the stumps were also removed. The neighbor lady was not home and never knew that the trees fell on her front yard as it was snowing and all the imprints were filled in by fresh snow. My cousin had a digital camera and took pictures during the whole process, E-mailing them to me at my office.

Since I saved almost $1,600.00, I was able to purchase a much needed new computer. That was 2002. It is now 2007 and I need new gutters, downspouts and windows - and I would love a new computer. Maybe I'll invite my cousin for a visit..............

Getting things done

There are so many things on my mental "To Do" list that when I have plenty of time to work on this list, I get paralyzed with indecision and end up doing Sudoku puzzles or surfing the Internet. I should clean the bathroom, but I'd rather stitch, yet that quilt needs binding, and I haven't finished the ironing. Yet I probably should pay the bills first, or perhaps start a load of laundry. And the kitchen floor needs scrubbing, but the quilt retreat is coming up and I need to prepare for that. My head starts to spin, I pick up a Sudoku puzzle, and nothing gets done while I look for where the 9 goes in the last grid.

Today I thought about my problem and decided to take a new approach. Instead of having to decide what to do on my long list, I made out little slips of paper for each list item and put them in a big bowl. After mixing them all up, I closed my eyes and reached in to pick out my first item. Then I set my timer for one hour and began on the assigned task. When the timer dinged, I put away the project and reached for another slip of paper, set the timer again for one hour, and began my new task.

It worked!!!!! I finished four projects and got an hour's worth of work done on four others, plus I took an hour out for lunch and dinner, reading my book as I ate which meant I also had almost two hours of reading time. What a productive day. I feel great.

Of course a lot of things did not get done - but they might not have gotten done anyway. Maybe I will pick them out of the bowl tomorrow. Maybe not. So if my kitchen floor does not get scrubbed until next week, well, it's just the luck of the draw.

Journaling

When I day-dream, I'm energetic, thin, and usually a writer, or some sort of artist, or musician, or public speaker. In real life, I'm somewhat lazy, overweight, and do not have the discipline to write or create or practice or keep my voice from quaking.

Come into my office and you will find many notebooks - journals started and abandoned, memory notebooks half full and abandoned. BUT - this year (so far) I have kept a daily journal right on my desk and faithfully enter a few lines for each day.

For several years I did "morning pages" (per Julia Cameron of "The Artist's Way" fame) and felt that it really helped me be more energetic. It was a half-hour committment every morning. That half-hour is now spent reading the newspaper.

I try to keep three blogs going, my daily journal entry and an e-mail to my cousins every night with two gratitudes & a summary of my day. It is my form of being a writer. My form of being an artist can be seen on my other blogs (quilting and counted cross-stitch) and my form of being a musician can be seen Sunday mornings when I sing in the choir. As far as public speaking goes, I make a great audience!

Do you journal?